Checkout Now - Marketplaces Ebook

Payment technologies that enable a better checkout experience and support marketplace expansion

Queuing to pay for a new pair of trainers or struggling to find a convenient parking space can really undermine a visit to the local shopping centre. Online retail therapy has its own frustrations too. For example, checkout experiences that don’t provide seamless one-click checkout processes not only deter consumers from completing a purchase. There’s a risk that the customer will shop via another platform. According to research by Baymard Institute, the average shopping cart abandonment rate across all industries is 70%.

But solving customer pain points is only one part of the equation. Another is offering an unrivaled experience to the businesses that make marketplaces and cashback sites attractive: merchants. Keeping this audience happy and engaged is the key to success.

In this ebook, we explain some of the modern payment technologies designed to improve checkout experiences for both merchants and buyers - empowering marketplaces and cashback platforms to sharpen their competitive edge. Importantly, this functionality can be built into a payments strategy without the need to ‘start from scratch’; indeed, it can enhance and strengthen existing options.

Why payments technology plays a critical role in virtual shopping experiences

An enhanced payment strategy can help marketplaces with shopping cart abandonment, streamlined checkout flows, greater visibility over consumer behavior to drive platform success and merchant base expansion.

Merchants of happiness: how to keep sellers engaged
- Machine to machine: keep merchants and affiliate partners happy with fast settlement
- Increase merchant engagement with marketplace payout solutions
Create a better brand experience for your buyers
- Strengthen buyer or shopper loyalty with a purchasing card on file
- Beyond the marketplace: offline purchasing cards drive new opportunities
- Grow online and offline sales with buy now, pay later functionality
Capitalising on a winning trend
- Benefits to both buyer and seller
- How to launch your marketplace innovation journey

Merchants of happiness: how to keep sellers engaged

Machine to machine: the glue that binds a marketplace to its merchants

Happy merchants and affiliates contribute to a successful marketplace and one way to keep merchants happy is by ensuring they get paid straight away. Machine to machine settlement does exactly that.

It enables marketplaces or merchant aggregator platforms to automate the instant issuance of single-use virtual cards that pay merchants in near real-time when a consumer makes a purchase.

In essence, machine to machine merchant settlement speeds up goods payment to merchants and affiliates, and enhances reconciliation of purchases by linking each purchase to a specific customer.

Create a better brand experience for your buyers

Marketplaces have an opportunity to continue engaging users in the offline world by issuing a branded card proposition which could be tokenised into a digital wallet.

By offering a card that can be used both on- and offline, marketplaces can gain a detailed picture of their customers’ spending behavior, likes, and interests. It also paves the way for discounts, loyalty, and rewards schemes with partner merchants via in-person interaction, as well as online.

Grow online and offline sales with buy now, pay later functionality

Engaging customers with a reward-based loyalty card proposition is one thing, but marketplaces have an opportunity to deliver unrivalled levels of engagement when users are empowered to buy and pay for goods on their own terms and in a manner that allows them to control their cash flow and spending.

Capitalising on a winning trend

A marketplace-issued card on file can facilitate seamless purchase experiences and reduce shopping cart abandonment rates while building additional benefits using data and insights. Potential benefits for both buyer and seller are significant, allowing marketplaces to create an eco-system of card benefits that extends into bricks and mortar, such as discounts.

How to launch your marketplace innovation journey

Marqeta’s card programme experts can help inform your marketplace development strategy. Marqeta is the modern card issuing platform empowering digital builders to bring the most innovative products to the world. Marqeta provides developers with advanced infrastructure and tools for building highly configurable payment cards. With its open APIs, the Marqeta platform is designed for businesses looking to easily build tailored payment solutions.